1877 Major League Baseball season

The 1877 schedule consisted of 60 games for all six teams of the National League. Each team was scheduled to play 12 games against the other five teams in the league. This was the first season that the National League adopted the format. The format would last only through the following season.

Opening Day took place on April 30 featuring a game between the Boston Red Caps and Brooklyn Hartfords. The final day of the season was on October 6, featuring four teams.^[2]

The 1877 season saw the following rule changes:

• New rules reemphasizing the need to fulfill team schedules are implemented.^[1]
• New scheduling rules were implemented. If the league has:
  • six or seven teams, each team must play twelve games against other teams,
  • eight or nine teams, each team must play ten games against other teams,
  • ten teams, each team must play eight games against other teams.^[1]
• Each team is entitled to play half of their games at home.^[1]
• Any team refusing to play a scheduled game will be immediately expelled.^[1]
• The batter's box was moved forward by one foot so that it was equidistant forward and aft from the center of home plate.^[1]
• A fair ball is now defined as one "batted directly to the ground that bound or roll within the foul lines between home and first or home and third base, without first touching the person of a player ... [and designated as foul] all balls batted directly to the ground that bound or roll outside the foul lines between home and first or home and third bases, without first touching the person of a player ... In either of these cases the first point of contact between the batted ball and the ground shall not be regarded."^[1] Previously, the first point of contact between the batted ball and the ground determined whether a ball was fair or foul.
• The National League adopted an official ball.^[1]
• For the 1877 season only, a rule forcing home teams to bat first was implemented, a change from the coin-toss by team captains procedure.^[1]
• Baserunners were instructed to run, not walk, back to the base where they began whenever required to do so.^[1]
• Baserunners are now required to run behind a fielder in the basepath who was legally attempting to field a ball.
• If the baserunner is hit by a ball, they are out.^[3]
• The basepath was defined as extending from the foul line to three feet to tis right, and any baserunner who ran outside this area from the batter's box to first base would be declared out.^[1]
• Canvas bases 15 inches square were introduced.^[3]
• Home plate was placed in the angle formed by the intersection of the first and third base lines, moving entire into fair territory.^[3][4]
• Player reserve clause was written into the contracts for the first time.^[3]
• The hitter was exempted from a time at bat if he walked.^[3]

The Brooklyn Hartfords, newly relocated from Hartford, Connecticut where they played as the Hartford Dark Blues, leave the Hartford Ball Club Grounds after playing there for three seasons since their National Association days from 1874, moving into Union Grounds where they would play until they folded at season's end.

The Chicago White Stockings would play their final game at 23rd Street Grounds on October 6 against the Louisville Grays, moving to Lakefront Park for the start of the 1878 season.

The Brooklyn Hartfords hosted a neutral site game against the Chicago White Stockings on their last home game of the season, September 22, at the site of the former National Association's New Haven Elm Citys, at the Howard Avenue Grounds in New Haven, Connecticut.^[12]

• 1877 in baseball (Events, Births, Deaths)